Operation Mongoose, Part 2
Operation Mongoose, Part 2 Episode Number: Season 4, Episode 23 Directed By: Ralph Hemecker Air Date: May 10, 2015 Previous Episode: Operation Mongoose, Part 1 Next Episode The Dark Swan "Operation Mongoose, Part 2" is part 2 of the 2 part story comprising the twenty-second and twenty-third episodes of Season 4 of the American fairytale/drama series Once Upon a Time, both of which aired on May 10, 2015. Both episodes served together as the fourth season finale. In this episode, Isaac becomes a wild card in Gold's scheme to change everyone's destiny as Emma Swan, Regina Mills, Mary Margaret, Captain Hook and David Nolan attempt to stop them. When Gold and Isaac forge ahead with their plans, they alter the destiny of everyone involved. Now it's up to Henry to reverse the outcome after he is drawn into the chaos and restore the destiny of his family before it is too late. Plot 'Opening Sequence' A swan is featured in the forest. 'In the Alternate Reality' Rumple returns home to his wife Belle and their newborn baby son. Unfortunately, Isaac is there waiting, and tells him that his happy ending will be taken away if a boy named Henry succeeds in his quest to reverse the events of the new book. As he is without his real memories, Rumple does not believe Isaac, thinking he must be a demon trying to corrupt him, until Isaac mentions Baelfire, a secret from Rumple's past that he has been keeping from Belle. Isaac then tells him that he must thwart Henry and Regina's plan to stop Robin and Zelena's wedding in order for him to keep his happy ending. Meanwhile, Henry goes to the Jolly Roger to recruit Hook and finds that the pirate is now employed by Captain Blackbeard. With this new Hook lacking in bravery, Henry has to take care of Blackbeard himself, before telling Hook that he must help him rescue his mother, Emma, from the tower. Henry and Hook sail to the tower and proceed to knock out the dark guard on duty. When Henry reaches Emma at the top, he is surprised to find that she has been able to keep her memories as part of a cruel curse. As the trio escape on the ship, Emma, while getting to know Hook, explains that the guard they knocked out was none other than Lily, who has the ability to transform into a dragon. Emma and Hook are able to shoot her down into the ocean with a cannon before she attacks. When they make a pit stop at a village, the three are caught by Snow and Charming, whom Lily had informed of their location. Since Snow does not acknowledge Emma as her daughter, she plans to kill both Emma and Henry. Hook, with no experience wielding a sword, tries to defend them. He battles Charming, and surprisingly defeats him by disarming him. After Hook is distracted, Charming is able to sneak upon him and fatally stab him in front of Emma. Henry and Emma return to Regina's cave. Emma asks to speak with Regina alone, and tells her that if she tells Robin the truth about how she feels, everything will be fixed and they can both get their happy endings with the men they love, acknowledging that she herself never got the chance to tell Hook how she really felt before it was too late. The trio arrive at the chapel to stop the wedding, but before they can do so, Rumple suddenly appears to stop them. Emma and Henry try to distract Rumple as Regina tries to work up the nerve to interrupt the ceremony. Emma engages Rumple in a sword fight, until he is able to knock her out temporarily. He then aims his sword at Henry, but Regina jumps in front of him just in time to take the hit herself, opting to save Henry instead of pursuing Robin. Moments later, Robin and Zelena exit the chapel and Robin rushes to Regina's side as Zelena's envy starts to take over, causing her to start turning green. Robin tells Regina that she won't have to die alone. Isaac reappears and Emma socks him in the face, and demands that he return everything to normal. However, because Isaac broke The Author's Code by writing himself a happy ending, the quill no longer works for him, as he is no longer The Author. Henry then picks up the quill and it activates, meaning that he has been appointed as the new Author. Using the blood of the "light savior," Regina, Henry writes, "Thanks to the hero Regina’s sacrifice, Isaac’s villainous work was undone." 'Storybrooke' As everyone awakens from the events back in Storybrooke, Emma runs to Hook and is relieved to find him alive, though she is still unable to admit her love for him. Gold also wakes up in his shop, back in his dying state. Isaac leaves him there to escape from town. Belle then enters the shop and finds him on the brink of death. She confronts him about his actions as of late and tells him that he already had his happy ending with her before he threw it all away for power. Belle admits that she does still care for him and Gold warns her to go far, far away, before his death is complete and only the Dark One remains. Meanwhile, as Isaac approaches the town line, he is stopped by Mary Margaret and David, who ask about his motives for messing with stories as the author. Isaac tells them that a lifetime of bad bosses and others who pushed him around inspired him to hate "heroes" and side with the villains, who he thought never got a break. The Sorcerer's Apprentice tells Henry more about his new powers as The Author, which do not include the ability to resurrect the dead directly, such as his father Neal, since he died in the real world. He urges Henry to resist the temptation of altering stories with the quill, and Henry responds by snapping it in half, saying that "no one should have that much power." That night, the people of Storybrooke are all celebrating at Granny's Diner. Lily tells Emma that she wants to find the identity of her father and plans on staying in Storybrooke during her search. Belle shows up to tell everyone that the last bit of humanity in Gold's heart is about to turn black, and the group finds Gold unconscious in his shop. The Apprentice then uses his power to pull the darkness out of Gold's heart and transfers it into the Sorcerer’s Hat, which severs Gold's link to the Dagger of Kris in the process. He then puts a pure white heart back into Gold, and casts a preservation spell on Gold while they figure out how to help him recover. However, the hat is unable to contain the darkness, and it breaks out, before attacking and entering The Apprentice. Emma uses her light magic to pull the darkness back out of The Apprentice, and the darkness exits the shop. As The Apprentice lies dying, he tells Emma and Hook that, long ago, the Sorcerer tethered the darkness to a human soul with the Dark One's dagger, and now that it's free, the only person who can prevent the darkness from destroying all the realms is the Sorcerer himself: Merlin. The two then meet Mary Margaret, David, Regina, and Robin as they scour the streets of Storybrooke for the darkness, which then reappears and attempts to possess Regina. Holding the dagger, Emma volunteers to tether herself to the darkness to prevent it from undoing all of Regina's progress, telling her loved ones that she trusts that they'll find a way to separate the darkness from her once again. She finally tells Hook that she loves him, after which she plunges the dagger into the dark cloud. The darkness violently surrounds Emma as she gradually absorbs it, before the darkness lifts into the sky and condenses on Emma. When it dissipates, only the dagger is left behind. As the shot zooms onto it, it now reads the name, "Emma Swan." Cast Starring *Ginnifer Goodwin as Snow White/Mary Margaret Blanchard *Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan *Lana Parrilla as The Evil Queen/Regina Mills *Josh Dallas as Prince Charming/David Nolan/Prince James *Emilie de Ravin as Belle *Colin O'Donoghue as Hook *Jared S. Gilmore as Henry Mills *Michael Socha as Will Scarlet *Robert Carlyle as Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold Guest Starring *Rebecca Mader as The Wicked Witch/Zelena *Sean Maguire as Robin Hood *Patrick Fischler as The Author/Isaac Heller *Lee Arenberg as Grumpy/Leroy *Beverley Elliot as Granny *Keegan Connor Tracy as The Blue Fairy/Mother Superior *Agnes Bruckner as Lily *Timothy Webber as The Apprentice *Charles Mesure as Blackbeard *Jason Burkart as Little John *Faustino di Bauda as Sleepy/Walter *Gabe Khouth as Sneezy/Tom Clark *Michael Coleman as Happy *David Paul Grove as Doc *Mig Macario as Bashful *Jeffrey Kaiser as Dopey Trivia Production Notes= *The title card features a swan in the forest. During the original airing, the two parts were separated by a different title card featuring a swan. The manner in which the letters form to make the show logo is different from the other episodes as is the musical accompaniment. The swan title card also appears in the DVD and Blu-ray version of this episode. The same musical accompaniment is used in the original and Blu-ray/DVD version of "An Untold Story". The swan title card was also used in the original airing of "There's No Place Like Home". *The title of this episode was announced by Adam Horowitz via his Twitter account on March 19, 2015. *Rumplestiltskin and Belle's son in the alternate reality is actually baby Prince Neal, Mary Margaret and David's infant son. |-|Goofs= *After Hook dies in the alternate reality, as he lays motionless on the ground, actor Colin O'Donoghue takes an obvious breath.